Lindley Bay Association

I, Joan Kimball, have gone to the River almost every year since I was 6 months old in 1932. From that age until I was 12, my mother and father (Anna and Donald Wood) and my sisters would stay with my grandmother, Nathalie Wood, at the Big House on Hickory Island. We were very close to the Dodges on Wild Goose Island, right next to us, and with people on Watch, Whiskey, Club and Grindstone. There were baseball games on the two tennis courts at Lindley Point, a tradition started in the 1880’s by the Morgan family––Fellowes (aka Pops), his three brothers, David, Pat and Hewitt and his sister Alice Carter. 

Every Sunday when I was a child in the ’30’s and early ’40’s, Aunt Bea Morgan (aka D or Moms), seated on the green bench next to home base––with her booming voice––was score keeper and referee. Each Sunday afternoon, I and my sisters would arrive at the tennis court, curtsey, saying “Good afternoon, Aunt Bea," and she would assign us to a team. (We commonly called the elders “aunt” and “uncle,” though they were not related to us.)

In 1964 Aunt Bea’s daughter, Aunt Polly Dodge arranged to have the land with the tennis court––which her father Uncle Fellowes had given to her––incorporated as the Lindley Bay Association, and she included as members all the Morgan family (Metcalfs, Whites, Smiths, Kenners, Haxalls, Boyers, Carters) plus non-Morgans including us, the Wood family, and the Herricks, Markses, MacLeans, Bacons, Pfeiffers and others. My Dad took me in 1964 to Whiskey Island for the inaugural meeting of the association. Phil Boyer was president and Uncle Clee Dodge was secretary and treasurer. At that time only the board of directors could make decisions. We were invited to the annual meeting to vote in the board and then were allowed to stay and listen to the deliberations for which we had no vote. In the 1980’s we got full voting privileges when Camille White Churchill became president and insisted that all should be allowed to vote.

Over the years many have worked to keep the Lindley Bay organization running, including Bolling Haxall, Betty Dodge Haxall, Philip Boyer, Camille Churchill, Michael White, Dr. Paul MacLean, Joan Rueckert, Pat Arés and Camilla (Cookie) Smith. By the late 1990’s, though, very few families spent their full summers at the River; baseball became irregular, and some people wondered if the Association should continue. Fred Rueckert, on the other hand, was a steady caretaker of the courts. When Martin Kenner became president at the end of the 90’s, he encouraged us to accept change, play baseball on occasion, but keep the daily tennis-playing intact. Volunteers from Watch, Rum Pt. and Buck Bay do the heavy work to open and close the courts each year. I have had the privilege of being a board member since 1986 and secretary since 1993. Polly Haxall MacLean , Betty’s daughter, became president in 2001. She started, with David Carter, kiddie baseball on Wednesdays and family picnics at various islands, and this has had a lasting effect. To paraphrase Polly: “Many of those children who played kiddie baseball are now married with children of their own, and as they spend time at the River, they want our association to help them connect with one another.”  Polly’s son Ally set up an online Facebook page and a website, which Josh Metcalf has continued as lindleybay.org.   Each year members, guided by John Mallery, open and close the courts. Our treasurers have kept the dues on an even keel––first with Nancy Lawrence managing the funds, then Alison Cassidy, Pat Arés, Paul MacLean and now Charlie Niebling. In 2013, after 12 productive years, Polly handed her presidential gavel to Fran Mallery, who gave it to Camil Roberts in 2018 and to Edie White in 2021.

Also in 2013 Rebecca Northington took over as baseball commissioner from Alice Dodge Berkeley, who had been stalwart commissioner since 1998. Edie White has continued as tennis commissioner since 2005. Now she is also President. Camil Roberts and Mabel Niebling created Lindley Bay fund-raising calendars from 2014 through 2023. In 2017 Fran Mallery coordinated weekly tennis lessons with Jimmy Chen, interruped by the Pandemic, but we hope they can be revived. The courts became available again in 2021 and a new basketball hoop, donated by the Phyle family, was added next to the courts. A special event, the Ferry-to-Foot Triathlon, run by Ryan Northington, was a yearly event, though not in 2020 and 2021, but resumed in 2023.

REFLECTING–––It seems to me that the tennis and baseball tradition that the Leavitts and Morgans started well over one hundred and sixty years ago, will continue to hold this group together, a group that would otherwise be divided by water and an international boundary. Instead, we are a steadfast–––if loose and not always in harmony–––community. May we continue to stay together!